


Better than the rest

by edourado



Series: Hell's Kitchen Chronicles [21]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hints of Smut, Jealous!Frank, Kastle prompt, Romance, Tumblr Prompt, edourado, kastle - Freeform, writting prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 22:37:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7193705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edourado/pseuds/edourado
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr prompt: #57: "“If you don’t want to talk about what happened, then say so. Don’t just lie and say it’s fine.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better than the rest

Usually, it was something they both liked to do, those late night walks with Max. He would wear his hoodie and keep mostly in the shadows, holding her hand and the pitbull’s collar. Anyone who looked at them would just see a couple taking a walk. No Punisher there.

Tonight, though, there would be no walk. Poor Max had been waiting the whole day - every time Frank would bring him along to Karen’s, it meant walk, almost every night.  

Not tonight. Max was ignorant to the reason, but Karen knew.

Matt. 

They almost never talked about him. She knew they worked together sometimes and Frank, of course, knew about their history. Besides that, there was very little to be said, especially since he stopped crashing on her couch and started sleeping on her bed with her, all curled up, almost always naked. 

Earlier tonight, though, she had run into her former boss and almost-sorta-ex-boyfriend. Going for a cup of coffee on her way home, she saw him standing in line. In the few seconds she took to decide if she should talk to him or not, he turned around and smiled at her. 

“You know, you shouldn’t do that”, she whispered, coming to stand by his side in line. “You’re just a normal blind guy, remember?”

He shrugged. 

They ended up walking around for a while, and it felt good to talk to him. It was still a bit awkward, but he was, after all, one of her closest friends. That attempt at something else hadn’t changed that, in the end. 

When they turned the corner to her place, they ran into Frank, who looked at them with a frown in place. 

“Frank, hey!” Karen greeted, smiling. 

“Ma’am.”

...Huh. 

“I’ve been looking for you, you asshole.”

This, of course, directed at Matt. “Red”, as he liked to call him. 

"You found me.”

“That prick showed up, you know that?”

Matt sighed. 

“I know.”

“‘The fuck were you, then?”

“I had an emergency, sorry.”

Frank scoffed, shifting on his feet. 

“Emergency. Don’t complain when I shoot him, next time you have an emergency.”

“You know we need to talk to him.”

“You need to talk to him. I need him to stop talking for good.”

Mat sighed, shaking his head. 

“Yeah, I’m not getting into this with you again. And, anyway, I gotta go”, he turned to Karen. “Great to see you.”

And then he leaned in and placed a kiss on her cheek. 

“See you around, Frank”, he said, walking away. 

He crossed the street and Karen turned to look at Frank, stepping to him.

“Hi”, she said, placing a kiss on his lips, waiting for that frown to vanish. “You ok?”

“Hmm”, was all he offered, but at least he placed a hand on the small of her back. 

“You wanna get Max?”

His eyes still following Matt as he walked away, he took a breath. 

“Nah. I’m hungry.”

They got to her place and she called for take out while he brewed a pot of coffee, Max whining and walking around him, pleading to go out, pulling on the leg of Frank’s pants with his teeth, walking to whine to Karen when that didn’t work. 

“Food’s on it’s way”, she said, petting the pitbull’s head and walking to lean on the other side of the kitchen counter.

Frank didn’t say anything, taking his sweet time choosing a mug from the cabinet. 

“Frank?”

“Hmm?”

“What is it?”

“What is what?”

She sighed and took a look at Max, who now sat in front of the window, moodily staring outside, letting out occasional whines of despair and contempt.

“Why are you mad?”

“I’m not mad, ma’am.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. 

“Come and kiss me properly, then.”

He chose a mug, set it by the coffee maker, closed the cabinet door and walked around the counter, very serious, dropping his face to hers mechanically, giving her a kiss that, technically, was ok. Nothing wrong with it. But it was not like his usual greeting kisses, especially the ones after he spent two days away, where he sighed and moaned against her mouth, engaging and sensual, kind and adoring. It was, she could say, an empty kiss. 

After he deemed it was enough, he stepped away, hand, at the very least, caressing her back once, on the waist of her skirt, and went to get his coffee. 

“You want some?”

Karen stared at his back, feeling strange. 

“No. I’m gonna get out of these clothes. Be right back.”

Usually - nine times out of ten -, he would watch as she shed her clothes - any clothes. Would sit in bed, or on the couch, sipping his steaming cup of coffee, comfortable, and scan her body as skin was revealed by the articles she took off, that hungry, contemplating expression of his making her feel beautiful, derisable. Frank would direct her, telling her to “turn around”, “do that again”, “one more time”, and even when she was tired, craving a shower and her bed, even when she had been feeling like her bones and muscles were a mess under her skin, she would find patience and strength to comply, because he always made it worth it, be it with words, a look, just a smile or full blown actions, when she was up for it. 

Tonight he just stood there on the kitchen drinking coffee, and Karen felt off.

The food arrived when she was done putting her hair up, sweats on after a quick shower, since they weren’t going out again, anyway. She opened the door and dealt with the delivery guy while Frank took plates and cutlery out of cabinets and drawers, quiet and borderline broody. 

They ate in relative quiet, not even the allure of food enough to pry Max away from his spot in front of the window. Karen wondered if the dog was mad he wasn’t going to be taken out or if he was just copying Frank’s passive aggressive mood. 

“So you’re not gonna tell me?” she asked, drying the dishes he washed after they ate. 

“What do you mean?” he asked after stealing a quick look at her.

“The reason you’e brooding?”

“I’m brooding?”

“Yes, you are, and it’s because of Matt, isn’t it?” 

“Matt”, he said, as if weighing the name. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, come on.”

He looked at her, dead serious, and offered her a half shrug. 

“Oh, Frank, are you serious?” she asked, exasperated now. “Look, if you don’t want to talk about what happened, then say so. Don’t just lie and say it’s fine.”

He turned the handle on her sink, cutting the flow of water, got a rag and and turned to her, drying his hands. 

“I didn’t lie. And I sure didn’t say it’s ‘fine’.”

She blinked. 

“So it- it’s not fine?”

“What isn’t?” 

He was messing with her, now. He had the same expression he had when he mocked her when she said he was going to “rot in a goddam jail cell”. 

She sighed, closing her eyes. 

“Nah, I’m just… Been wondering, you know?”

“Wondering what?”

“That he… He’s a mess, that dude.”

Karen raised her brows, blinking a bit fast. 

“He is?”

“Yeah. There’s this nurse, Claire. Cool chic, real nice woman, but he can’t seem to get his shit together. And then with you…”

“What about me?”

“The way he talks about you, sometimes.”

He gave a shrug and Karen resisted the urge to ask for more details.

“He’s good at a few things. Hiding what he’s feeling is not one of them. So yeah”, he looked at her again, eyes drilling hers. “It caught me a bit off guard when, after not showing up for this thing last night, I see him walking around with you, all smiles, that stupid cane he doesn’t need.”

She thought about what to say, to explain it wasn’t like that, at least not anymore, that he was, yes, important to her, but not like that, but he was taking a step towards her. 

“That’s what  _ we  _ do, isn’t it? Walk around?”

Karen let out a silent chuckle, relieved he was normal again. 

“I guess it is.”

He crowded her against the sink, nose touching hers and oh she was so relieved. She lifted her hand and touched the hem of his jeans. 

“So you were kind of jealous, huh?”

“Hmm”, he said, his own hand on her back and down her butt, inside her sweatpants. “I know it’s annoying. But yeah.”

It could become really annoying. But, at the same time, he didn’t let it take huge proportions, never even tried to control her or tell her what to do. So she figured she was allowed to enjoy the fact he cared enough to feel like that. 

“Well, don’t worry”, she whispered, leaning a bit away from him when he looked for her lips with his. “I only ‘walk around’ with you and Max. That with Matt was just a casual stroll among friends.”

He let out that noise he made in the back of his throat sometimes, like a low growl and she teased her fingers up his shirt, feeling his warm skin. 

“Speaking of which”, she said, dodging another kiss. “Someone’s pretty miserable there.” She craned her neck to look at Max, who sat very still, his face against the breeze coming from the open window. “Let’s take him outside.”

“Now, you wanna do this?” he asked, squeezing her ass with his hand and oh, man, that was a great argument. 

“Yeah.” 

She pried him away from her and told him to get Max ready while she changed into some jeans and sneakers. After she lowered a tee shirt and got her coat on, he held the front door closed when she tried to open it, catching her hair in his hand and bringing her face close to his, kissing her thoroughly and slowly, making her body heat up and she almost changed her mind and pushed him back inside, when Max whined and huffed, biting the hem of his coat, pulling him away from her. 

“Shit, this dog”, he said, separating from her. “Alright, fine. Damn.”

They walked around for a while, almost an hour, keeping to the shadows, his hand firm in hers, his eyes scanning everything around them, always so attentive to any possible threat. Frank pulled her to him to catch quick, hard kisses, musing on her ear the plans he had for her when they got back.  

When they circled back around to her street again, Max was satisfied with his time outside and led the way to the building’s door.

While she looked for the right key, he stood behind her, his body glued to hers, face on the curve of her neck, hand under her shirt, on her belly, threatening to dive inside her jeans, and she breathed harder, fighting the impulse to giggle like a teenager, and pushed her butt against him slightly, making him groan. 

Before they could climb up the stairs, a few kids, her neighbors, saw them walking in and stopped playing. 

“Max!” the younger one, maybe five years old, exclaimed, and Max started towards them, pulling on the leash. “Can he play a bit?” they asked, petting his head and rubbing his ears. 

“Sure”, Frank said, handing the older kid the leash. “Miss Page's gonna come pick him up later.”

"Cool!”

They left Max rolling around in front of the mail boxes with the kids and he all but hurled her up the stairs, unzipping her coat and unbuttoning her jeans even before she could open her door, sliding it off her arms, shirt up her head and jeans down her legs as soon as they were inside.

He sat on the couch, feet firmly planted on the floor and sat her on top of him, guiding her movements and speed, making her squirm and shiver and bite down on her lips to control her own whimpers and moans, bracing against him and letting herself be guided. Karen never regretted doing that. 

Later, when her breathing was back to normal and her skin had stopped tingling, she looked at the clock. 

“I think I should go get Max.”

“Ok”, he said, hand on her back while she lied there on his chest.

She got up and picked her clothes from the floor. Underwear and bra on, she shimmied into her jeans and moved to get her shirt. 

“Hey”, he called and she looked behind her, towards the couch, where he still sat, now in his own underwear. “Do that one more time”.

She smiled, biting her lip and turning her face away from him again, unfastening her jeans and pulling them down, just to slowly raise them again. 

“Again. Slower”, he breathed and she grinned, tossing her head back so the tips of her hair touched her lower back, moving to follow his instructions.

There he was. That’s better.  


End file.
